10/21/2005

Beaten by a Grue: A Designer Looks at Indigo Prophecy

Elevator quote: "It's the closest I've ever come to a text adventure on a console."

This game comes to us from Quantic Dream, whom some of you may remember as the developer that brought us the just-ahead-of-its-time Omicron: The Nomad Soul, a 3d living-world game for PC that predated GTA3 and featured David Bowie's wife as a playable character. Understanding the pedigree, you start to see the family resemblence. Indigo Prophecy (website) allows the player to control several different main characters (although without Omicron's unique premise that made this a part of the story). Basically, Indigo Prophecy unfolds like a movie, and you get to control the main character in each scene.

Unlike almost every other "cinematic" game I can think of, this one shines, and it is because the story is actually good. If you have an interest in storytelling in games, you need to play this. There is simply nothing else quite like it, especially in the console world. As a game designer, however, Indigo Prophecy most impressed me by finding a way to turn a 5 minute conversation into real gameplay. Perhaps there is hope for Metal Gear Solid yet, if only somebody would translate this into Japanese.

The Characters

A strong story demands strong characters, and Indigo Prophecy's characters are strong enough. Lucas Kane, our leading male, is angsty without being whiney. His last name, of course, is homophonous with Cain, the biblical first murderer who was cursed by god never to die, which seems a bit heavy handed, considering that he is cast as a murderer on the run. I think Lucas could have lived without this comic book naming convention, but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

Carla Valenti, our leading female, is a driven detective investigating the murder Kane commits in the opening IGC. She's smart and strong, but retains enough humanity to avoid falling into some sort of Kill Bill stereotype. My only real complaint is that the designers made Carla a declaired "firm bachelorette," while the two male characters each had a love interest. I worry that this may have been so a largely male audience could "have her for themselves." She's also the only character to have an on-screen shower scene. Emails promising wine from a guy named "Tommy" go nowhere when he is revealed to be her friendly gay neighbor from across the hall. Of course, Carla doesn't need a man in her life, and I have no way of knowing the designers' intentions, but in a game that was in development as long as this one, it's hard to believe that no thought was put into this at all.

Tyler Miles, the third main character, and effectively a supporting male, is Carla's partner in the investigation. Tyler's character plays just a little bit too stereotypically black for my taste, but perhaps this is what happens when a bunch of white Europeans try to write a black New York City gang-member-turned-cop. I have heard that Tyler was originally envisioned as a comic relief character, but happily this was changed, and he is played seriously. He doesn't get shot so that his partner can avenge him later, which makes him better off than most black cops in movies. Tyler loves basketball, his Motown albums (on vinyl), and his girlfriend Sam, but when he's on the job, he's as serious as Carla.

Controls & Mechanics

A couple of things get done really well here. Long dialogues and action sequences get played out in a Shenmue/Dragon's Lair kind of way, using the dual analog sticks to play a game of Simon. Thankfully, Indigo Prophecy is slightly more forgiving than most games that use this system. While this isn't exactly thrill-a-minute gameplay, it keeps me engaged much more than a cutscene, but it doesn't overwhelm me so much that I can't pay attention to what's being said. Some of these sequences, when failed, actually don't end the game, but just cause the scene to play out differently. Unfortunately, there is no strong signal for which events are critical, and which are plot branchers. In a theoretical sequel, I would like to see this more explicitly defined.

Feats of strength, such as running really hard, or pushing something over, are done by hitting the L and R triggers as fast as you can in an alternating pattern. The genius of this is that your fingers actually get tired. Especially in some of the later sequences where you have to do this repeatedly and for longer durations, I found myself feeling real physical relief when I completed a challenge successfully.

Actual navigation of environments can be somewhat awkward, due to the ever-popular "wonky cameras" found in so many 3d games. Thankfully, there are very few occasions where you are forced to do this against a time limit.

One of the rather novel mechanics in the game is the "emotional state" meter, which measures how depressed you are. In general, Lucas gets depressed really easily, since he has killed someone without understanding why or how, while Carla and Tyler are rarely in danger of getting too depressed. What I liked most about the meter is that the very best state you can be in is "Normal," while there are 7 or 8 lower states, like "Tense" and "Overwrought." The meter displays itself as a human figure that slowly goes from standing tall to curled up in a sobbing fetal position. If your emotional state bottoms out, you commit suicide, and the game is over. This really helps to underscore the air of melancholy that fills most of this game.

Playing Indigo Prophecy reminded me of something Will Wright once told me about his vision for The Sims. One day, the machine would detect what kind of story you were trying to tell, and it would start feeding you things to go along with that story. Many years in the future, maybe you'll be able to play Indigo Prophecy in The Sims. The player is rewarded for exploring the environment and role playing the characters. Doing normal things like eating, drinking, taking a shower, going to the bathroom, watching TV and so on all tend to take the edge off, which bumps your precious emotion meter up towards Normal. Luckily all of these little tasks are optional, and quick, so I never felt like the story was holding itself up because Carla needed to pee.

The game does include some "stealth missions" that it could have done without. This only goes to show that if your game is not a stealth game, you have no business putting stealth in your game, regardless of how many units Metal Gear Solid is selling. Thankfully, the player can muddle through these, but they were definitely the part I had to replay the most to get right.

Another minor issue was that I often felt lost in environments that the character I was playing should have known well. Waking up in my apartment and thinking to myself "I should take a shower," but having no idea which door leads to the bathroom took me out of the experience. Indigo Prophecy bravely chooses not to make Lucas an amnesiac when it would have been so easy to fit within their premise, but that means forgoing the all the advantages amnesia provides in videogame backstory.

The Menues

Particularly notable is the usual "New Game" option is instead "Start New Movie," further underscoring Quantic Dream's "Interactive Cinema" vision. During the game, Indigo Prophecy is an excellent example of minimalistic interface, especially considering the amount of dialogue involved. Although the action sequences tend to be about "playing the interface instead of playing the game," everything is clean and legible.

The Tutorial

Easily one of the best game tutorials I've seen in a while. The tutorial takes place on what looks like a movie soundstage, while the lead designer indulges himself by actually appearing physically in his own game to introduce you to the game's controls in his accented English.

Thoughts

A story-based game with a bad story will only ever be as good as a crappy movie. Indigo Prophecy lives and dies by its story, and I think most gamers will appreciate a lot of what Quantic Dream has written. I'd like to see other people try things like this, but if they're not willing to invest the time, money and effort necessary to tell a good story, it won't come to anything.

This game was originally designed to be episodic stand-alone downloads on a PC, but broadband wasn't widespread enough back when they had the idea. I'm glad it was published in a more traditional format, because I think this gives more exposure to what is for most people a new kind of game. Unusual distribution for an unusual game type doesn't strike me as a good strategy for a financially successful game for this scale of a project.

This game goes on my shortlist of things I would give people who tell me they "don't really like videogames," as a possible gateway drug. It's just that different from anything else out there, but still a legitimate representation of a direction in the medium. Other games on this list right now are Katamari Damashii and Ico.

Quantic Dream may call this "interactive cinema," but because of the story's length, I wonder if the pacing it permits might better fit the model of a novel (or perhaps novella). Yes, yes, sound and picture make us think "movie," but if we get more developers interested in exploring this gamespace, my gut tells me that books might end up being a better story guide than film.

I find it interesting that in the Special Thanks section, the lead designer apologizes to his son for all the missed weekends, and promises to never let anything like that ever happen again. Game development is a demanding job, regardless of where you work.

I don't know if you think this game has a Good Story or just that it's good compared to other games'. Compared to a what I would consider a good story in a movie, this story is rubbish. I really can't see why people think this is a good game. I think this game would have benefited from an episodic release. Then every episode could have it's own central theme that that particular episode could have been focused on. Now i find the story kind of loosely connected and "ad hoc". It would also help alleviate the feeling of the game being too long. As it is, i'm really frickin' tired of mashing buttons by the end of it.

And that's another reason i don't find the game very appealing, the button mashing gameplay. I think it's an interesting idea to force the player to do something physical when the character has to, but i also think there's a reason that not many games have featured mindless controller torture since the 80's. The Simon part of the action sequences is a bit more bearable and luckily for me, more frequent, but i find i'm fed up with that as well before the game ends. Also, the veeeeery much too long things-fying-at-you-in-the-apartment sequence didn't help. It's extremely annoying to have to do any of these bits again if you fail, so that becomes my main goal when playing, to not get irritated. Admittedly, most of these sequences are well balanced so you don't have to play them again, but the ones that are not really ruins it.

It fantastic that they try to do something different, we need that. But apparently, different isn't always good.

But I really feel like the designers want us to examine the game in terms of plot and story. That's all fine and good, and it works just fantastic as a video game. But as a plot, if it were written as a book or movie, it would blow chunks. Like you said, the characters are one-dimensional and stereotypical.

I don't want to go too much into it for fear of giving it away, but let's just say that Indigo heavily borrows from some more popular films.

In a way, I see Indigo Prophecy as a kind of video game "thesis;" it's not quite as unique as a dissertation, they're just borrowing and applying a new methodology. Indigo Prophecy both an indictment for storytelling and an inspiration. The story, when considered apart from its video games, is poor. But that it is fun and interesting as a video game shows just how powerful interactive storytelling is. There's a big potential that Indigo opens but never steps through.

I'd really like to see what happens when video game designers stop writing games and let writers do their jobs.

I agree with beelerspace here. Indigo Prophecy had a lot of interesting ideas for merging narrative with interactivity, but most definitely suffered from archetypal characters, an over-the-top storyline, and, often, awkward dialogue. Relative to video games, there's a lot of creative juice flowing through Indigo Prophecy, but the dialogue is pretty painful at times, particularly when it gets self-referential. Bonnie Ruberg over at Heroine Sheik had some interesting things to say about the referencing of video games in Indigo, and I for the most part agree with her sentiments: http://www.heroine-sheik.com/2005/10/14/the-first-of-fightclub-discomfort-self-reference-and-gaming-as-camp/

I agree that the story in Indigo Prophecy isn't the greatest story ever told, but I'd be willing to give it "good-for-a-videogame," which is all we're likely to get unless one of two things happens: game companies start hiring proven professional writers who have learned how to adapt their talents to videogame writing's unique challenges, or a game designer simultaneously builds a reputation as a published author, screenwriter or playwright.

I've found that since I've started working in the game industry, I've gained a huge tolerance for flawed games that do something new and different. The thought that "I could do this better," positively enervates me now that it's not such a rhetorical statement any more. Regardless of what you might think of Indigo Prophecy's details, it does manage to tell a complex story with character development. That's why I still say, if you're interested in games-as-storytelling, you have to check this game out. If nothing else, view it as an idea mine to loot.

Is the game story competent enough to stand on its own as a book or a movie? No, of course not... but movies and books also do not have the same level of involvement. I think the same is true of Final Fantasy or whatever... there's really no way in Hell I'd read a book version of the stuff, but it works in the game world.

It works because everything surrounding it works. The title is able, unlike many other games, create a feeling of tension through its cinematic presentation and situations. It's well told for what it is and with the current climate in videogames, it's almost enough. From a pure standalone story standpoint there really aren't many games at all that will hold their weight. It's more the sum of its parts.

I didn't see it referencing games as a problem. In fact, I feel that the writer of that article was taking the references a bit too seriously from the sounds of it.

In any case, the game reminded me, at first, of old school adventure games on the PC, largely because there's not really any "action" segments to speak of. I don't know that anyone should count those extended QTE/Simon-style events as action heh.

I'm quite surprised at the feelings about this game, because I was massively disappointed with it. I have to give this game credit for trying something new, it's just a shame that so little of it worked.